I'm currently working on a pop song with a canon chord progression.

I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-IV-V, in Roman.

1-5-6m-3m-4-1-4-5, in Nashville.

The song has style tracks, utility tracks, block chord tracks, soloist and melodist in both RealTracks and MIDI Tracks.

To make the song interesting and not boring, the are multiple keys set in this one song.

The first verse is in the key of C, the second verse changes to key of D, then the chorus changes again to key of E.

Currently there are two methods of partially changing keys in the same song.

Method 1: Select a region and use "Transpose From To".

Method 2: Go to Bar Settings, change Key Signature of a bar and thereafter.

Which method should I use? If the entire song is set to key of C, when I have patial song changed to key of D, will the solo be generated wrongly due to a different scale?

Also, in Nashville notation, is there a way to keep the chords displayed in the original number when changing the key? For example, the song setting is in C, when part of the song is changed from C to D, the chords of 1-5-6m-3m doesn't change to 2-6-7m-4#m, therefore avoid the confusions?

Assuming you are using repeats, perhaps the easiest is to Edit, Song Form and Expand to one long chorus. Then change the key signature with F5 where needed.

I don’t think a generated solo in the ‘wrong’ key will necessarily play wrong, but it will surely look more complicated with accidentals and enharmonically inappropriate notes. BIAB should always have the right key signature where possible.

I don’t use Nashville notation, but I think you might do better to create a separate post for that.

So, what is the difference between "change key in bar setting" vs "directly enter chords in a different key".

To make it simple, bar 1 to 4 is in C. For bar 5 to 8, I want to change it to D.

Say, chords from bar 1 to 4 are: C-G-Am-Em.

For bar 5 to 8, I can simply enter: D-A-Bm-F#m.

Alternatively, I can right click bar 5, open bar settings, select key signature to D in the dialog box.

Do these two methods generate different results?

You can change key signature or change chords on the chord sheet and achieve the same sound.

My GUESS is the different methods can affect how the music notes are printed or displayed. One of the reasons key signatures exist is to minimize the number of flats or sharps required to document each note in a scale. Each key signature has a different number of flats or sharps in a western music 12 note octave scale.

Yes, this is a variation of what I was saying.

But I recall that someone contributed to the article I wrote about ‘When BIAB doesn’t play the chords you write’, that ‘wrong’ notes are more likely to sound in a chord when the key signature is wrong.

Interestingly, there is a trend emerging among composers of modern orchestral scores, and complex big band jazz charts, to just write everything in the key of C. I wouldn’t do it, in part because I develop material in BIAB, but if you want to change key signatures every few bars to reduce accidentals, that in itself becomes hard to read.

We have talked about this in the past. My conclusion has been that due to BIAB's history and complexity I would not be surpirzed if certain programing features and options look to the Key Signature to make their decision on what will be played. In that case you would need to write your chords in the stated key. Beyond that I have never seen a definitive answer from PGM. I did once try to write a complex key change section. Best I remember it was a bust and I broke the song into 2 different files. But may just have been my workaround. Best to let you ear tell you whats right.

<< To make the song interesting and not boring, the are multiple keys set in this one song.

The first verse is in the key of C, the second verse changes to key of D, then the chorus changes again to key of E.

Currently there are two methods of partially changing keys in the same song. >>


There's a third method you may find interesting to experiment with. It's the Song Form Medley Maker. It's a very powerful tool and feature of BIAB.

It's marketed by PG Music to create a Medley of SGU files but it can also be a medley of different bars and sections of a single SGU file or a mixture of the two, some different songs mixed with several sections of a single song.

I've attached some screen shots of a short 32 bar song split out into different sections of intro, verse, chorus, and outro to demonstrate how your song split into different sections of different keys would appear in the Song Form Medley Maker. The Chord Sheet screen shot includes 2 bar transitions between the key changes for demonstration.

A feature of the Medley Maker is BIAB can automatically generate transitions between key signature transitions from 0-16 bars and the user can modify them if they wish.

Attached images refer to a 2021 BiaB new feature: Fix Sour Notes.

You can force a RealTrack to regenerate notes based on song key, chords, scale, etc, therefore remove the accidentals aka sour/weird notes. It can also do a full track fix as well as a partial fix.


I'm not sure if this is still true when use the "Fix Sour Notes" feature.

My assumption is, when you simply enter chords of a different key, you do not change the backend data. However, when you do an F5 bar settings and change key signature from there, you overwrite the backend data of that bar, and "Fix Sour Notes" may work differently.

I could be wrong?

I'm not sure if this "Fix Sour Notes" 2021 new feature is a real deal, or just another gimmick.


One way to find out, is to make a new song, set the key to C, then enter C-G-Am-Em for a couple of bars, enter D-A-Bm-F#m for another several bars. Then load a ton of RealTracks to the 16 Utility tracks, from different genres, including soloist and melodist. Single each Utility track and mute the others, play it. If something sounds sour/weird, try the "Fix Sour Notes" feature, see if things are fixed.

I did some test but didn't have much findings. I hope someone can look into this feature, and share some thoughts on whether this "Fix Sour Notes" thing is a life saver, or not.

I'm both stoked and concerned with this "Medley Maker" feature.


My understanding is, using Medley Maker, you can stitch multiple child SGUs together into one master SGU, and specify the number of bars to be inserted for automatic transitions.

My concerns are:

(1) In your master SGU, if you need to make some basic changes, is it going to make a mess?
Basic changes, such as changing a few chords, inserting or deleting a few bars, change a few RealTracks, etc. If you make changes directly in the master SGU, are child SGUs being updated as well?

(2) Are child SGUs and master SGU always connected? If you make changes on the child SGUs, is the master SGU going to be affected?

(3) Can you regenerate a RealTrack directly in the master SGU? Also, after some testing, when child SGUs are all in different keys, it seems the key of master SGU doesn't change automatically when the next child SGU inside is being played?

I'm still confused with this feature in terms of the relationship between child and master.

Yes. That's correct, multiple child SGUs are combined into a master SGU and the bars and transitions are modifiable.

Concerns:

1. Some changes will not work and others will in regard to the Master SGU. In your examples, changing chords works. Inserting or deleing bars work. If you change a RealTrack in the Master SGU, it remains changed for all of the Child SGUs bars in the Master SGU but doesn't affect the Child SGU. The actual Child SGU is not affected by changing a RealTrack in the Master SGU. Changes made in the master SGU, doesn't affect the Child SGUs.

2. They are linked but not directly connected. Any changes made to a Child SGU have to be saved before the change is recognized by the Master SGU. Changes made to the Master SGU do not affect the Child SGU. The Master SGU can be saved as a normal SGU/MGU file or exported from the Medley Maker Dialog Window.

3. You can regenerate RealTracks and exchange RealTracks with the exception noted above in Concern 1 that the RealTrack affects all the bars of the Master SGU regardless of the Child SGU being read.

Correct. The Master SGU key signature remains the same throughout. Note that the Child SGU key signature can be changed from the Medley Maker Dialog Window and Styles and tempo can also be changed from this window without affecting the Child SGU. MultiStyles are also recognized in the Master SGU in my testing.

In your testing, I would not expect Utility track content to be altered. Try the test only on Legacy tracks.